Date:   Sun Feb 27 1994  09:21:10
From:   Thomas Yoha
To:     All
Subj:   Ames Passed Polygraph
POLITICS                       -------------------------------

  As seen on a wire service Saturday, February 26, 1994;

                 Report: Ames Passed Polygraph Test

     WASHINGTON-5:16 PM (ET) 2/24/94-Accused CIA turncoat Aldrich
  Ames passed agency polygraph tests twice during the time he is
  suspected of working for Moscow, and the Senate Intelligence
  Committee plans to review the agency's internal security
  procedures, officials said today.

     Meantime, the CIA suspects that secrets allegedly sold by the
  former counterintelligence officer led to the deaths of at least
  10 Soviets working for US intelligence, according to 1 official
  familiar with CIA and FBI briefings to the House and Senate
  intelligence committees.

     In an effort to detect traitors, the CIA tries to administer
  polygraph tests every 5 years to its employees, but there have
  been backlogs.

     Ames, alleged to have worked for the Soviets and then the
  Russians from 1985 until his arrest Monday, was tested on schedule
  without his spying being discovered, according to a government
  official who declined to be identified by name. Those tests
  occurred in 1986 and 1991, according to another official.

     "Doesn't the machine work? Or is it that easy to beat?" asked a
  congressional official who had been advised that Ames' passed the
  tests. "That's one area the Senate Intelligence Committee will be
  looking at."

     One of the government officials said successful polygraphing
  depends on the questions.

     "They ask you if you are a spy. It's about that blunt," said
  the congressional official. This official said the committee also
  has questions about CIA and FBI cooperation on the case. CIA
  Director James Woolsey and Attorney General Janet Reno have hailed
  the cooperation, but Reno said today she did not know how well
  they worked together before her arrival last year.

     Cooperation has been fine the past couple years, the
  congressional official said, but the government doesn't have a
  clear idea of the investigative effort from 1986-91, a period when
  Ames far outspent his salary.

     Government sources have said the Ames investigation began 2
  years ago, but suspicion that a Soviet mole had penetrated US
  intelligence was aroused in 1985, the year ex-CIA agent Edward
  Howard defected to the Soviet Union while under FBI surveillance.

     The Senate panel also wants more information about exactly how
  and when Ames was recruited by the Soviets, including any role his
  wife may have played.

     In August 1985, Ames married Maria del Rosario Casas. When he
  was stationed in Mexico City during 1981-83, she was a cultural
  attache there for Colombia, her native land, and a paid CIA
  source.

     Her attorney, William Cummings, said she is "devastated by the
  distortions, out-of-context, selected statements and alleged
  quotations in the government's affidavit along with the subsequent
  press coverage." Cummings statement did not address a report by a
  government official that she had begun cooperating after her
  arrest Monday.

     Ames' attorney, Plato Cacheris, said Ames was not talking with
  authorities. Cacheris visited Ames in custody yesterday.

     A hearing on the couple's continued detention without bail was
  postponed until Tuesday.

     Shortly after the arrests, the CIA informed Congress it had
  reason to believe Ames' alleged disclosures had led to the deaths
  of 10 US agents, according to another congressional official.

     "We've been given a number, but at the same time we've been
  told the damage assessment is just starting" and the death figure
  could go higher. This official cautioned that it had not been made
  clear that the link between Ames and the deaths could be proved.

     In Moscow, Foreign Intelligence Service spokesman Yuri
  Kobaladze told the AP the reports of 10 deaths were
  "speculations."

     "There have been cases of intelligence officials who have spied
  for the US and were unmasked and sentenced to death by firing
  squad," Kobaladze said. Asked whether there have been 10 such
  cases, he answered, "Certainly not."

     On Capitol Hill, Secretary of State Warren Christopher rejected
  calls in Congress to suspend US aid to Russia over the Ames
  incident.

     "American assistance is not charity," Christopher said. "We do
  it because it is in the interest of the US" to promote political,
  economic and foreign policy reform in Russia.

     "Don't act shocked that there are spies in the world," Sen.
  Patrick Leahy said in a Senate speech urging continued Russian
  aid. "I hope if there are other Russian spies in the country, and
  I fully expect there are, that we can catch them soon." The
  Vermont Democrat chairs a foreign aid appropriations subcommittee.

     Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas had called for a
  halt to aid to Moscow unless the Russians cooperate in the Ames
  prosecution.

     The Clinton administration is still awaiting a reply from
  Moscow to its demand that Russia recall intelligence officials in
  the US who dealt with Ames. "If they don't take action, we will,"
  White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers has said.
                    (From The Associated Press)
